


White Noise

by nonbinary_mermaid



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: A bit of torture, Canon Compliant, Gem Corruption, Gen, Missing Scene, between s5e26 and e27, but it's sort of disassociated from the narrative, idk nightmares are weird like that
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-22
Updated: 2019-01-22
Packaged: 2019-10-14 17:22:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,694
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17512763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nonbinary_mermaid/pseuds/nonbinary_mermaid
Summary: Everything turns white and loud. Worse than before.Pain.Noise.Loud.Pearl has a dream for the first time in a long time, and some old memories come up to the surface.





	White Noise

Pearl doesn’t dream. Not often anyway, not even rarely. After that slumber party with Steven and the others she thought it best to leave dreaming to the professionals; Steven and Amethyst. Though under any other circumstance she wouldn’t call Amethyst an expert in pretty much anything. Was Garnet able to dream? Or did Ruby and Sapphire dream in tandem? What if others do too…

No. Enough of that unproductive imaginations. Back to the point. Pearl doesn’t dream.

It’s been… exhausting to say the least, being back on Homeworld and in this… position… again. Steven is resting, tomorrow is this ball that he’s worked so hard to pull off. Connie’s just fallen asleep as well and the pebbles are going back to their quarters. It’s sort of nice seeing them again, it’s been so long since Pink Diamond… made them. Pearl furrows her brow just a tad, but relaxes as she watches the little pebbles busily recreating a loft for Steven. The spot seems just fine for some meditation, she’s been trying that certainly more than sleeping, and she’ll be full of energy when Steven wakes up. Pearl lets her eyes close and her mind slow.

Pearl doesn’t dream. But this time, she did.

They’re at the ball, all of them. Steven is sitting on the large illustrious throne of Pink Diamond, looking nervous but fulfilling his duties in greeting the court while Connie stands by idly. Yellow Pearl makes her appearance announcing the arrival of Yellow Diamond, and Blue Pearl and Diamond follow not too far behind. This seems to be going rather well, all things considered! Pearl steals a quick glance around the room and all is as it should be. Until she hears a voice.

_“Welcome back, Pearl.”_

She looks at Blue Pearl, but the quiet gem is not at her place beside Blue Diamond. Turning the other way Blue Pearl is right beside her, those long bangs never betraying a hint of emotion.

Pearl turns but Yellow Pearl is facing her from the other side. “It’s been such a long time! Honestly we thought you’d been shattered too! I guess nothing is truly what it seems these days.” Her clear cut tone, sarcastic in its melody, does nothing to soothe Pearl’s nerves as they appear to move closer. Why hasn’t Steven or Connie noticed? Or any of the others? The room has grown dark and it seems like it’s just the three of them on that grand throne. Then the sound of a door opens and curtains begin to draw as the room suddenly fills with light.

_“And now for the illustrious, all shining and ever-bright, the most glorious! White Diamond!”_

Pearl’s stomach drops. She doesn’t even really know what the expression means but what she feels as White Diamond enters isn’t good.

The room fills with pure white light as the mighty diamond emerges from the curtains. All the gems of the courts give their salutes, and Blue and Yellow Diamond bow their heads in acknowledgement. But neither of the pearls have resume their designated posts. Why are they still here? Why can’t they leave Pearl alone? White Diamond takes her seat in the tall, flawless throne and the light is unbearable. It hurts to look at, and even the ambient sound has become deafening. Pearl bends down covering her head to try and block it out. Shield. She had Rose Quartz’s shield the last time this happened. Where is it?

_“Welcome back, Pearl.”_

Pearl looks up, the light is gone. But before her stands White Pearl; graceful, unmoving, and broken. Her buns are as neat and tidy as ever, with no color on her facade. Pearl can’t help but stare at the cracked surface of her left eye. Without blinking, White Pearl’s smile slowly fades to a frown. _“Welcome back. Pink Diamond’s. Pearl.”_

There’s a searing pain suddenly. Her vision cracks and shatters. _Oh stars_ the pain. Her entire left side feels like it’s been broken off.

Then she’s not looking at White Pearl, she’s looking at … Pink Pearl. The same Pearl, cracked, suffering, unmoving on the ground while pieces of her are scattered before the throne. Pink Diamond is here too, sobbing and wailing at the feet of the throne’s occupant: _“Make it stop, White! This was my fault! Pearl had nothing to do with this!”_ Pearl is standing beside her Diamond; unmoving and unemotional as is her duty. But at the same time she’s fallen to her knees in shock. She knew White Diamond was powerful and capable of potentially shattering a gem with her powers, but… to torture the poor gem… corrupting them like this…

Pink Pearl convulses on the ground and when Pink Diamond turns to look, White Diamond chuckles to herself and raises her hand. Blinding light erupts from her fingertips in beams that strike Pink Pearl in the face once again. Her shriek fills the room and then peters out as her form regresses into the gem, lying among small pieces of fractured material on the ground. The room is dead silent. 

_“Now I hope you’ve learned a valuable lesson today, Pink.”_ White Diamond says with her most motherly tone. _“We mustn’t toy with things not created for those purposes. Now run along back to your chambers.”_

Pink Diamond stood up, still wiping tears from her face. She opened her mouth to speak but White Diamond cuts her off, _“Oh come now don’t be so overdramatic. We already shed enough tears when Blue is around!”_ finishing with a small chuckle. _“I will send a gift to your chambers later, now I wish to deal with my own duties.”_

With that, Pink Diamond was sealed in a white bubble and whisked off out of the throne room before she could say another word. White Diamond spent a long moment of silence contemplating the damaged gem before her, before standing up and out of the chair.

_“My Diamond, please. Allow me to dispose of this unsightly… incident.”_ Pearl makes a step forward but White Diamond moves a hand.

_“No, no. I have a better idea of what we can do with … her.”_ White Diamond says in a low contemplative tone. As she kneels down to pick up the gem, a softer light comes out of her hands.

_Rose could’ve fixed her._

Pearl suddenly comes back to herself. Still in the throne room but now very much aware of her situation, not just passively remembering.

Pink Diamond wanted to heal her.

White Diamond cradles the small gem in her hands, like holding a grain of sand with the utmost care. The soft light continues to glow around the pearl. Pearl wants to move, to rescue her now. From what? What could she possibly do?

_White Diamond wouldn’t let her._

The soft glow faded from White Diamond’s palms and she gave a small hum in satisfaction. She sits back in her chair holding the gem and there they wait. Time passes torturously slow and silent and Pearl wants nothing more than to scream in agony for her fellow pearl. Her… sister of sorts. Eventually, a light forms in White Diamond’s palm as the pearl begins to reform. The pearl slowly stands as her formation completes.

_White Diamond wouldn’t let her forget her mistake._

In White Diamond’s palm stood Pink Pearl, now monochrome and, from what Pearl could see, with a large scar across the left side of her face. The Pearl curtsied with her salute and White Diamond smiled wide.

_“Welcome back, my pearl.”_

The white pearl smiled back. _“How shall I be of assistance to you, my most gracious Diamond?”_ Pearl began to feel that pain in her left eye again. That corrupting pain.

White Diamond laughed softly to herself. _“Patience, my dear Pearl. I have some changes to make first.”_ And she looked down at Pearl whose was now both on her knees curling over in pain and standing at attention ready for her diamond’s orders. _“Pearl, dear?”_

_“Yes, my Diamond?”_ The pain was eating her alive yet her memory kept moving on. _“How can I be of service to you?”_

_“Starting today, you shall now serve as Pearl to Pink Diamond. Effective immediately.”_

Pearl, crying and screaming in her pain looked up to the tyrannical light of White Diamond, and the now White Pearl in her hand. At once she saw both that smiling, unchanging face that White Pearl always has, and a crippled, tortured gem on her hands and knees, staring back at Pearl. It’s as if she’s cracked… Pearl has only seen damage like that a few rare times.

_“Yes, my Diamond. I’ll see to her at once.”_

Now something really uncomfortable happens. Pearl watches herself, monochrome as was her attire, walk out of the room and phase through the wall. She knew what happened next: Pearl went to the chambers of Pink Diamond and eventually changed her color palette slightly to ease the transition for Pink Diamond. But she didn’t follow herself. Pearl’s consciousness was still fixed in that room. That awful, sterile, white room.

It’s silent again, and then White Diamond hums a small tune as she sets her new pearl down on the ground. Then she looks at Pearl with those enormous, blinding eyes.

_“Welcome back, Pearl.”_

Everything turns white and loud. Worse than before. Corrupting.

Pain.

Noise.

Loud.

…

Pearl jolts awake to the sound of a pebble constructing a pillow around her neck. Amethyst and Garnet are directing some more pebbles to build a couch with pillows. No one seems to have noticed Pearl wake up. Or fall asleep for that matter. Not a few moments later Steven wakes up with a gasp and Pearl leans over to his aid.

“Steven, are you okay?”

“Yeah, just had a really weird nightmare.”

The other pebbles swarm around him as they all stir awake. Pearl smiles as Steven gets to work on his ball. But in the back of her mind, something ticks a little. She rubs her eyes a little and feels something, like a hairline fracture on her left eye. Pearl shakes her head, opting to unpack that later. She just hopes her dreams weren’t on display again…

**Author's Note:**

> So I had this rattling around my drafts for a while but since the new episode came out I figured what do I have to lose by posting it. asdgfhdjsgs


End file.
